Hiya! I'm Erin, an eccentric robot inventor and analogue astronaut with hands-on experience in developing embedded systems and electronics.
I make robots for extreme environments to:
1) solve climate related challenges, and
2) discover more about harbouring lifeforms
My research & development work demonstrates my unconventional approach and continual progress towards these goals. Enjoy!
New! June 2023 - Recognised with Rising Star award at Sensors Converge in Silicon Valley, CA
New! May 2023 - Analogue Astronaut mission to the Mars Desert Research Station with Atmosphinder robot
New! June 2023 - Robot Butterfly on exhibit at Union Gallery at Queen's University
Photo by Kris Davidson during MDRS 261
News
Embarking on an analogue astronaut mission to the Mars Desert Research Station with Transatlantic Mars Crew 261! Bringing my robotics experiment, Atmosphinder.
Featured Robots
Selected works of robots that I have worked on.
Otter Force One
Robotic urchin harvesting to protect kelp forests. View Project
Robot Butterfly Watch
Embedded wearable robot butterfly watch using the Raspberry Pi Pico RP2040 in C.
Atmosphinder
Atmosphinder harnesses Martian winds to perform environmental science on Mars by observing CO2 gas jet expulsions in the southern polar region. Presented at IAC 2022. View Project
Bowie the Robot
Mobile autonomous robot that detects and collects plastic. View Project
Eja
Ropeless fishing gear device with intelligent buoy. Decreases the occurrence of marine life entanglements with ghost gear, while making the commercial fishing process more intelligent for fisheries. View Project
Hippo-PD
Power distribution for mobile robots. Custom Eagle circuit board design. Work in progress.
Skills
The breadth of my skillset is well suited for research & development and rapid prototype product design.
Electrical Engineering
- 2 layer board layout (Eagle)
- Schematic capture (Eagle)
- Test equipment (oscilloscope, power profiling, logic analyzer, spectrum analyzer, power supply, digital load)
- Soldering (through hole and surface mount - 0603)
- Debugging (optical inspection, wire wrap fixes)
Embedded Systems
- Program and Debug STM32 Arm Cortex M (C: STM32CubeIDE)
- Program Raspberry Pi Pico RP2040 (C: cmake via VSCode)
- Program ESP32, Teensy, Arduino (C/C++: Arduino IDE)
- Arduino firmware libraries (C++)
- Architecture diagrams
- MQTT protocol for IoT devices
- printf debugging
Mechanical and Industrial Design
- Autodesk Fusion 360 - solids, meshes
- Simuscale - CFD simulation
- Autodesk Fusion 360 - FEA, thermal simulations
- Adobe Illustrator for laser cutting
- Retouching in Meshmixer
- Visualise in my mind
Fabrication
- 3D printer (FDM – hobby, BigRep One, Formlabs 1 & 2 (SLA), Fortus 450MC)
- Laser cutter (CO2 & Fibre)
- CNC milling (Shopbot small & large format)
- CNC milling copper circuit boards (Othermill / Bantam Tools)
- Voltera (conductive ink deposition)
Entrepreneurship
- Crowdfunding
- Community leadership
- Presenting to stakeholders, leaders of industry
- Raising support and fundraising
- Preparation of pitch decks
- Writing grant applications
- Managing volunteer team
- Being multiple different roles
- Understanding contributing factors to unintended learning experiences
Marketing
- Live streaming (Open Broadcast Studio (OBS))
- Video editing (Final Cut Pro X)
- Graphic design (Adobe Photoshop)
- Music mixing - basic (Garageband)
- Written communications and documentation
Software
- Creative coding (Processing - Java)
- Interactive art (Processing - Java)
- Scripting (Python)
- Tensorflow for image object detection (Python)
- Webpage design (HTML, CSS, Javascript)
- iOS Apps - rusty (Cocoa Objective-C)
Outreach
- Prototyping 101 workshop
- Mentoring
- Robotics workshops
- Video tutorials
- Written tutorials
Experience
- Mentor, Making Embedded Systems ClasspertX Class 2021, 2022
- Virtual Residency, Supplyframe DesignLab
Summer 2021, Summer 2022 - Electronics Designer, Invest Ottawa 2018-Present
- Founder, Robot Missions 2016-Present
Education
- International Space University SSP19 2019
- MaRS Discovery District Fellowship 2015-2016
- Fab Academy 2015
- Stanford University EPGY (Artificial Intelligence) 2008
Interviews and Presentations
Awards
(under construction)
- Rising Star - Sensors Converge, Silicon Valley, CA (2023)
- Recognised in the Next Gen Engineer program at Sensors Converge in Silicon Valley, the conference for embedded and electronics design engineers
- European Space Agency scholarship to International Space University
- Space Studies Program (2019)
- Lieutenant Governor’s Visionaries Prize - Environmental Stewardship (2016)
- Announced by the Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, this prize recognised Ontario’s most creative thinkers and gave them a forum for tackling the challenges that Ontarians and Canadians will face over the next 50 years.
- Gold Medal - RoboGames (aka ‘robot Olympics’), Silicon Valley, CA (2015)
- Won 1st place in the Open category with my original Rapidly Deployable Automation System robot. Represented Canada in this international tournament with robot builders from 20 countries.
In Action
Photos when building stuff to prove that, yes indeed, I am the person who does build the stuff (some people doubt this for some reason Lol).
Contact
My projects are regularly in need of support through funding, parts, supplies. Always interested in hearing about potential collaborations and thoughts. Feel free to get in touch and let's see what's possible!
Current status: Open to mentoring and advising new experimental robotics projects!
Page last updated: August 19 2023 20:15:26.